Suddenly - DVD Review

          I guess that when movie producers run out of ideas, they decide that it’s okay to take a movie that was made in the 1950’s and see if they could make it better.  In this case, the movie is different but the characters have even changed as well.  

          Ray Liotta is a down and out cop who seems to have problems with his anger and drinking.  Nothing new since he is usually typecast as a nasty villian for these roles since his debut in the movie Something Wild.  It seems funny that Frank Sinatra, who was in the 1950’s version of Suddenly plays the assassin, who is a down and out washed up soldier.  

           In the movie Suddenly, the President of the United States is coming to town and security is on the highest level.  There is a family that lives in a house that overlooks the train station from a hill.  This is where three men come to their home, posiing as FBI agents, only to take over the house, since it’s in perfect view of the train station for a sniper. 

            Like the 1950’s movie, the family members will try and stop the assassination, predictable as it sounds, buidling tension throughout the story, making you wonder if the family will be able to stop the assassination.  The story line is slightly different from the 1950’s version but you wonder if the President is going to be killed.  

            If there was a plan for this to be better than the 1950’s version, I would say that the plan failed miseralbly.   Sinatra did put on a good performance as an edgy sniper and his character was much better than Ray Liotta, who seemed to play the same type of role as a down and out cop.   The sniper in Liotta’s movie seemed more professional, along with his men, comparing his mission to the bombing in Oklahoma City.  

             If you were to compare the ending of each movie, I would say the 1950’s verison is better, since there is a blazing gunbattle between the cops and the snipers.  Compare that to a predictable ending in the later version where you wonder if the sniper will be successful or not. 

             In making the comparison, I gave five stars to the 1950’s version of Suddenly.  As far as today’s version is concerned, I would give Suddenly three stars. 

Ron Hummer